In our new Have Your Say op-ed, Hanno Loewy, the director of the Jewish Museum in Hohenems, Austria, visits Trieste, Italy and describes how family history often provides tangible connections to Jewish memory and heritage, with Jewish built heritage as a touchstone. The year 2017 will mark 400 years since Jews settled in Hohenems.Today, few Jews live in either Hohenems or the surrounding Austrian region of Voralberg, but the town has a Jewish museum, a former synagogue, and a Jewish cemetery that bear testament to its past.
Next summer, a reunion of hundreds of far-flung Hohenems descendants is set to turn Hohenems into a global hub of Jewish memory. In preparation, Loewy is traveling around the world to connect with members of the “Hohenems Diaspora” and find traces of their history. In Trieste, his latest stop, he found traces in the overgrown Jewish cemetery and in grand city mansions — and also met with descendants of the Hohenemsers who moved to the city in the 19th century.
Click to read Hanno Loewy’s Have Your Say
